Another one of Toronto’s independent video stores will fade to black later this month.

After nine years in business, the Film Buff East will rent its last video on Aug. 21. The store at Queen St. E. and Greenwood Ave. will close entirely in early September.

The Film Buff West, located on Roncesvalles Ave., will stay open.

“This was inevitable, but I don’t really harbour any sort of ill will,” said Scott Worsley, who owns both shops. “It’s a cultural change, quite frankly. Our demise is a function of that change in, sort of, instant entertainment.”

Over the years, the shop has been a beloved part of the neighbourhood, frequented by “amazing” customers, Worsley said.

“It’s always a bit sad, when you have to go down the closing path . . . but, in this case, it’s kind of for a good reason,” he said. “It may be caused by negatives in the business cycle, but the store has served its purpose. And it did very well doing so.”

In recent years, the way people watch movies has changed. Viewers now load the latest Hollywood blockbuster on Netflix or iTunes instead of popping out to their local video rental shop, leaving video rental behemoths such as Blockbuster to wither.

“It’s more mainstream, more centred to the bell curve,” he said. “And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just how it is.”

Cinephiles who are more interested in watching foreign flicks than The Fault in Our Stars are still being underserved by online streaming services, however.

Those are the viewers the Film Buff’s remaining location will reach out to in the future, Worsley said.

“Like any other remaining art-house video store, we’re going to have to rethink how we deliver our services to a smaller audience,” he said. “And that makes it challenging and fun.”

The Film Buff West has experienced the same lower sales that the east-end location has seen in recent years, but the situation has been less dire at the Roncesvalles store because it has a larger movie collection and a larger client base.

Focusing on niche films makes sense for the Film Buff West, because the vast majority of the store’s 40,000 titles aren’t available on streaming services such as Netflix or iTunes.

“It makes sense to adapt as best we can to be what we set out to be, which is an art-house video store that provides things that aren’t readily accessible and mainstream,” Worsley said.

One silver lining to come out of the shuttering of the Film Buff East is that movie lovers will have a chance to get their hands on some rare finds. The store’s inventory, which Worsley calls “an extraordinary collection of movies,” will go on sale starting Aug. 23.

“It’s a little bit heartbreaking, but it’s kind of nice that it conceivably can find its way into the hands of people who appreciate and desire the product,” he said.

Where to rent a movie in T.O.

The days of seeing a Blockbuster in every strip mall are long gone, with many people turning to Netflix or other video on demand services for their Hollywood fix. Video rental businesses haven’t disappeared entirely, however. Here’s a list of places you can still rent old-fashioned hard-copy movies in Toronto:

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